For those of you who are unaware there is a new movie coming out this year about geocaching! Director Chris Williamson has been working hard to put together this movie for many months. He allowed me to view the movie before its release. Here’s what I thought:

Treasure is a great, family friendly movie. Erica’s story is one that a lot of people can relate to at least in some part. Everyone has gone through a hard time in life, much like Erica is. Being a geocacher myself, I can tell you that geocaching is very accurately depicted in Treasure. The character of Ryan, played by Matt Mercurio, explains many of the rules of geocaching to Erica (Ansley Gordon). I really enjoyed that many different aspects of geocaching were included in the film, including puzzle and multi caches, trackables and geocoins, swag trading and Cache In Trash Out. While geocaching is a large part of the story, there are many other great parts to it as well. This kept the movie fresh. If the movie was just about people going out and finding geocaches, I’m sure a lot of people would be less than interested. There’s a lot than can be learned from this movie as well; how to deal with grief and peer pressure, how to help your community and how to treat others in general. Overall, a job well done by all of the cast and crew.

Here you can see the trailer for Treasure:

You can preorder a Blu Ray of Treasure by visiting treasurethemovie.com which will be available in June or July 2017.

There a few Treasure trackable geocoins left that you can purchase. There were only 100 minted so they are quite rare and it is the same one that Erica and Ryan find in a geocache in the movie. If you would like one of these collectible coins send $25 via PayPal to sunfirefilmsllc@gmail.com. If international please add $10 for S&H.

Sonny and Sandy of the Podcacher Podcast along with Garmin are giving away a brand new Garmin Oregon 750T GPSr! Now that’s a great prize. There are things you can do to gain entries into the contest. You can visit the Podcacher Facebook page, follow Podcacher on Twitter, tweet about the contest, write a blog post or a few others as well. You can find all the details with ways to enter at podcacher.com/winagarmin.

The deadline to enter is February 10th so hurry up and get your entries in! A be sure to check out the Podcacher Podcast at www.podcacher.com

I got some mail recently all the way from New Zealand! I got two really cool pathtags from Nellie also known as Nosynel. The first is one of Nosynel’s personal tags which has a steam punk owl on it, that she had made for the New Zealand Mega that just happened a few months ago. The other is a really cute snoopy tag, which commemorates her work as a Kea scout leader. Both are very nice!

Nosynel sent me these for helping with the Oamaru Geofest trackable. This trackable is being passed from one geocacher to another in order to spread the word about the Oamaru Geofest event in New Zealand next October. Unfortunately it’s been getting cold here in New York and I haven’t had the chance to get out and go geocaching as much as I’d like. But I have taken it around to some nice places in my area.

Nosynel is working to coordinate this event and is hoping to get enough Will Attends for it to be a mega! The Oamaru Geofest (GC6M2V0) will be October 21 & 22, 2017 in Oamaru, New Zealand. If you are at all considering attending please be sure to log your will attend for the event!

Thank you so much to Nellie for sending me these very cute pathtags! I will be sending the Oamaru Geofest trackable along to Startdustzzz in Georgia! Hopefully she can take it on some cool adventures.

I have partnered up with two other geocachers, softball29 and Geocaching Jangie, for a contest to win 12 awesome pathtags, 2 of which are mine.

There is one mandatory entry, comment on softball29’s blog post (link here) saying why you would like the set of tags.

There are many other ways to get chances to win which are outlined on the blog post by softball29, linked above. Following me on Twitter (@SherminatorGC) or on YouTube (here) gets you extra entries to the contest.

You have until November 23rd to enter! All of the rules and other ways to enter can be found here.

Many geocachers enjoy taking their furry friends along on their caching adventures, including myself. We adopted Rogue, an American Staffordshire/Boxer mix, in July 2015 from a local animal shelter; she was just over a year old. At times it seems she has an endless supply of energy. We could go for a 5 mile walk and she would just keep going. Anytime she sees us grab the backpack and put on our boots, she gets overly excited and stands at the door, waiting. She especially loves the woods, mainly because of the squirrels I assume.

Anyone who has met Rogue will tell you that she is an absolute spaz. She has about a 10 second attention span. If she sees a squirrel or other small animal, she will chase it. She has nearly pulled me over many times, too. This can make geocaching with her difficult. It often takes us longer to get to the cache because she gets so distracted. One big benefit of bringing Rogue along is that she loves to climb. She doesn’t care how steep an incline it is, she just wants to go up. She will often pull us up a hill with minimal effort.

10 days after we adopted Rogue, we packed up the car and headed to Pittsfield, Massachusetts for the Berkshire Geobash Mega Event. I don’t think Rogue had seen that many people in her entire life. She was very skittish at first, but she got accustomed to it quickly. They had a small pen there with goats and sheep, which Rogue was amazed by. We also all met Signal for the first time. As soon as Rogue saw the giant, green, fluffy frog, she thought he was her new chew toy and wanted to fling him around like a rag doll.

We have also taken Rogue caching by kayak a few times. She usually goes in my boyfriend’s kayak because he has a little extra room. This means I’m usually the one who has to actually search for and sign the cache. When kayaking, Rogue enjoys jumping out and going for a swim; which usually almost makes the kayak flip over. She also loves seeing ducks, geese and other birds, which she tries to attack, usually without success.

Rogue also came along on our trip to Denver this past summer for GeoWoodstock 14er. We made the drive from New York to Colorado in a span of about 2 ½ days. She was surprisingly well behaved in the car; sleeping for most of it. We stopped every few hours for a cache, which we were all thankful for. She accompanied us to caches in 9 new states, on a brewery tour for the lab caches, up to Pike’s Peak, to Mingo, the oldest active cache and to the St. Louis Arch.

The best adventure so far that I’ve had with Rogue was the Tough Mudder series of caches that we did in my area. 6 multi caches were placed that really challenged each cacher physically and mentally. We walked through creeks, climbed rocky embankments and hiked many, many miles. Rogue was with me for every single one of those Tough Mudder caches. I am so proud of what we accomplished together and will never forget that experience.

Our special, spazzy geopup has brought a lot of joy into our lives. She can be pretty hyper and crazy but I wouldn’t trade her for any other dog. Rogue has traveled many miles with us. You can see all the caches she’s visited here: Going Rogue Rogue’s Trackable

Does your furry friend accompany you on your geocaching trips? Tell me about it in the comments! 🙂

Recently I’ve heard a lot of talk about finding the oldest cache in a certain region. It is always fun to find the oldest cache in your county, state or country. I decided to do some research and look for the oldest active cache in my state, New York, for each cache type. Here’s what I’ve found:

Traditional Cache

The Spot GC39 – Placed on May 26, 2000. There are 4 other caches in New York State placed in the year 2000 that are still active. They are: Sleepy Hollow – 1 GCAE, Boston Cache GCBF, Turkey Cache GCBE and Hudson’s Folly GC101.

Multi Cache

Carlton Hill 1 GC8F7 – Placed May 9, 2001. This multi cache originally had two waypoints, but now currently only has one, even though it is still listed as a multi. The 2nd oldest multi that is still active in New York is CNY Falls #5 (GC1275) and it still has 3 waypoints.

Mystery Cache

Saxon Woods Ge-“O” -Cache GCC84 – Placed June 15, 2001. This puzzle, near New York City, provides a map with a marked spot. The finder has to use the map and a compass, like orienteering, to find the location of the cache.

Letterbox Hybrid Cache

Doink GC3D22 – Placed February 24, 2002. This letterbox cache is placed in Heath Park south of Syracuse, New York. The cache is not found very often and has gotten only 131 finders in over 14 years.

Wherigo Cache

Henry Hudson’s hidden treasure GC1B3M3 – Placed April 10, 2008. This one is an ammo can hidden south of Albany. Wherigo caches haven’t been around as long as many other cache types. There are also only 42 wherigos currently active in New York State.

Virtual Cache

Air Crash 1 GCF92 – Placed July 7, 2001. This virtual is located on a mountain 3080 feet above sea level and about a 3 mile hike. This virtual is the first in a series of airplane related caches. It features the site of an airplane crash from 1987; the engine and many other plane parts are strewn about the forest.

Webcam Cache

Christy’s Motel GC3C3A – Placed February 22, 2002. This webcam is one of 3 remaining in the state. This one is located at a motel in Old Forge in the Adirondacks. It is very surprising to me that the webcam is still up and running. I have actually done this webcam cache.

Earthcache

Onondaga Escarpment #2; Glen Falls Earthcache GCMW3P – Placed February 20, 2005. This earthcache is about Glen Falls in Ellicott Creek in Williamsville, just outside of Buffalo. Finders must estimate the width of the falls, also called the crest. I have actually been to these waterfalls many times throughout my life, but haven’t been back since I learned about geocaching.

Have you found any of the oldest caches in your state or country? Let me know in the comments!

Since this Sunday, October 9, is International Earthcache Day, I wanted to share some of my favorites! These are in no particular order because it is just too hard to choose.

Table Rock Earthcache (GCMH1C)

Ontario, Canada

I have lived in New York my entire life and have visited Niagara Falls many times. It was only this past May that I had the chance to visit again for the first time as a geocacher. While the falls are stunning from anywhere, the view is much better from the Canadian side. For those that don’t know, there are actually two sets of waterfalls at Niagara Falls. The one pictured here is called the Horseshoe Falls. Even though I have visited many times, the falls still stun me every single time. GCMH1C

Eternal Flame Falls Earthcache GC10VMY

Orchard Park, New York

The Eternal Flame was something I had always heard about, but had never been to. A geofriend of mine decided to make this earthcache his 1000th find and of course a large group, including myself, tagged along to celebrate with him. This earthcache is definitely one that I would recommend to everyone. As the name suggests, it features a flame that burns continuously, due to gaseous fossil fuel escaping through cracks in the rock. Not only is it unique because of the flame, but it also has a waterfall that flows over it. GC10WMY

Penn Grade Crude Oil GC2BCBY

Bradford, Pennsylvania

My favorite thing about this earthcache is that it is at a McDonalds!! The McDonalds in Bradford, PA was built at the site of a working oil well. The oil well was originally drilled in the late 1870s. The rights passed through many hands over the years. By the 1970s, the surrounding area was becoming more urbanized and the city of Bradford tried to force the well to be plugged. McDonalds expressed interest in incorporating the well into their design plan and thus the well remained! This one of a kind well can still produce one barrel of Pennsylvania Grade Crude Oil per day. GC2BCBY

Speeding Along the Dinosaur Freeway GC1PR86

Morrison, Colorado

This earthcache is one of four at Dinosaur Ridge near Denver, Colorado. This one in particular was interesting because it brings you to a large area with tons of dinosaur tracks! There are over 335 tracks from 37 individual dinosaurs. This earthcache asks you to calculate the speed at which a particular dinosaur was traveling when the tracks were made. This can be calculated by measuring the footprint length and the distance between the tracks. This one really appealed to my nerdy side! GC1PR86

The Amazing Balanced Rock GC2QQGY

Colorado Springs, Colorado

As the name states, this rock amazed me. It is located in Garden of the Gods park in Colorado Springs, Colorado; about an hour south of Denver. The huge rock, which is made up of sand, gravel, silica and hematite, weighs over 700 tons! The rock is roughly 290 million years old. One can only wonder how long it can stay balancing like that. GC2QQGY